One of the the most under rated elements of Pay Per Click marketing is the ability to build and measure the effectiveness of different elements against each other.

Split testing, also called A/B testing, refers to the process of developing several variations of a single advertisement material and comparing the results against each other. It is a test to measure the conversion ability of one sales page over the other.

Split testing calls for developing two or three similar landing pages instead of one and finding out which among these would get the website better conversion rates. Other ways of measuring doing A/B testing include banners, PPC text ads etc.  In our experience, this certainly does It would undoubtedly mean spending more time and money initially but it’s really worth it.

Split testing analyzes the success of each variation of your landing page, banner, PPC etc and helps you concentrate only on those that bring in more traffic and conversions. A successful internet marketing campaign would call for split testing the effectiveness of your advertising material. It obviously involves more work; but doing the split testing really pays off in the long run as you can then spend your time and efforts only on the one that brings in more conversions. The others can be eliminated altogether.  Then the whole testing begins again!

Using Split Testing Methods

To illustrate the point further, let’s develop two variations of a landing page (1 & 2) with different layouts, colors, images and wordings and have it run for a week. Just watch which of the two brings in more conversions. If users stay longer and conversions are more in the 2nd one, choose only the 2nd one for your Internet marketing campaigns. 

Benefits

Think of a situation where you had never done testing like this. You would never have known that your 2nd variation was bringing in more conversions. You would probably continue to spend your time and efforts on the 1st one draining away your precious resources in the process.  It is often felt that many internet marketers also pay scant attention to the amount of time spent by a visitor on a page. But it should be realized that the more time spent by a visitor on a site, the chances of conversions taking place are greater.

Suppose you are using a banner advertisement with a particular size, color and animation to promote a certain product or service. Try using another variation with a different size, color and animation and see which is performing better. If the 2nd brings in more conversions go for the latter and discard the former altogether. You will only stand to gain in the long run. Internet marketers should consider split testing their sales pages as an ongoing process. A successful sales page now may not be that effective at a later date and the ability to convert could drastically be dented. Individual preferences keep changing. By continuously testing your sales page you could adopt to the changing customer preferences

Conclusion

Split testing should form a crucial part of all internet marketing efforts. It offers you the option to test and judge the comparative effectiveness of your similar ad campaigns. It sets the bench mark for the best GEO location to concentrate on. It gives you vital statistics that could help you plan, grow and consolidate your business. It will guarantee a better return on your investment and will help you save dollars that otherwise would have gone waste. It does involve investing in time, money and efforts initially; but then its merits far outweigh the costs.  The only question that remains;  do you think you have the time to do split testing?  My answer;  How can you afford not to?

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